Talking Story
Book War Summer
The librarian called me a liar. “There’s no way you read those books! You just took them home yesterday. You’re trying to cheat!” Now a wiser child would’ve simply said something like, “No, ma’am! I live thousands of miles away, but I’m spending the summer with my...
Book Review: Dependent
by Brenda Corey Dunne
Dependent, the stunning new novel by Brenda Corey Dunne, is an unusual coming of age story about a forty-five year old woman finding herself after making hard choices at nineteen that set the course of her life. Ellen Michaels has been an officer’s wife for...
New Shave Ice Excuses
Summer used to mean trips to the library, at least once a week and usually more often. Books had to be gathered from under beds and behind car seats and children rounded up and loaded into those same seats, wiggling with anticipation over the new stories they’d...
Cover Reveal: Woven
by Michael Jensen & David Powers King
Isn't it gorgeous? Woven, the debut novel from Michael Jensen and David Powers King, is published by Scholastic and coming out in January 2015. From the back of the book: When Nels, the Kingdom of Avërand’s most eager aspiring knight, is murdered, his ghost haunts the...
Vision
We are deep in the Mexican campo, far off the beaten tourist path. We’ve come to a wide place in the road that marks a small tienda, a cinderblock and corrugated tin hut that serves as the only grocery, hurricane shelter, gas station, post office, and cantina for...
Redefining Me
After many years of thinking of myself as a feminist, I’ve realized that I’m not. That definition has become too loaded with baggage I don’t want to carry any more. There’s a particular brand of feminism that proclaims if you’re a feminist, then you’re for everything...
Author Interview: Johnny Worthen
Someone was pound, pound, pounding on the side door. The vicious tiny attack poodles at my feet each peeked one eye open and went back to sleep. Wow, I thought. This must really be important! I quickly hit save, then back-up, then compile, then save again on my...
Rainbow Bullies: The Drainbow Files
Not surprisingly, some people disagree with my criticism of the 2014 Rainbow Family Gathering which is happening in the Uintah National Forest just a few miles from my home. Here’s a sample: “But Lehua, where is your Christian charity? We should welcome everyone with...
So Over the Rainbows
The Drainbow Files
I’d always assumed if I was paying for a party, I’d at least get to pick the guest list. Wrong. I am soooo tired of special. This year, the Rainbow Family has chosen Uintah National Forest for their annual gathering. It’s a pristine chunk of federal land that...
BYU Kid Author Camp
Had a blast yesterday at BYU with the Kid Authors Camp kids. An amazingly smart, talented, and fearless group of writers. They asked all the tough questions about how contracts work, movie rights, and how they can publish their work when they're ready, like in...
Tilting at Windmills
Tilting at windmills is exhausting. I should know. For the last few years I’ve been waving my sword at giants, huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf, certain in the rightness of my cause. There is no drug or drink as heady as righteous indignation, for when you...
Mid-Life Muscle Car Madness
I’m having a mid-life crisis. I need a new car. In our family, a new car takes years to purchase. My husband researches, test drives, compares. He considers the possible uses we’ll put it to—road trips, pulling horse trailers or boats, or simply running around...
Cover Reveal: Copper Descent
by Angela Hartley
Available for purchase as an eBook and to order as a trade paperback is the first novel in Angela Hartley's Sentient Chronicles, Copper Descent. From the back of the book: The tale of Sinauf was a secret nineteen-year-old Nina Douglas’ ancestors kept hidden for...
Blah
You ever get the blahs? It’s like being hungry but nothing looks good on the menu. Blah. When I feel that way, phrases like a change is as good as a rest and only idle hands make bored minds rattle around in my brain. The voice is my grandmother’s. It also says...
Book Review: Eleanor (The Unseen)
by Johnny Worthen
You could argue that all teenage girls are self-centered survivalist monsters at heart, at times unlovable, wholly malleable, and subject to the whims of the adults around them. But in Eleanor’s case these typical teen traits are a little more literal. Eleanor the...
Book Review: Confessions of The Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know Of)
by F.J.R. Titchenell
You know when you read a book about teens and you think the author just didn’t get it? Well, F.J.R. Titchenell gets video gaming, paintballing, Vespa riding, teenage tomboy angst, true love, the uses of theater paint—oh, and killing zombies. Confessions of The Very...
10 Non-Islamic Benefits to Burkas
The Oceania Odysseys
You could wear pajamas grocery shopping and no one would know. Skip everything but eye make-up. Ponytail hair every day. No shaving, waxing, or nylons. No sunscreen. Big lunch? No problem. Ultimate crowd blend—you could hide in your car and check email instead of...
Book Review: New Sight
by Jo Ann Schneider
Jo Ann Schneider’s debut novel New Sight, is a little hard to pin down. Not knowing much about it when I began it, after the first few chapters I thought, “Ah-ha! Sci-fi!” and settled down for thriller about futuristic drugs and big brother. 16 year old Lys Blake has...
Freak Show
The Oceania Odysseys
Sunday evening, May 4, 2014, Istanbul, Turkey. There are 800 of us in semi-formal western attire walking through the plaza past the Hagia Sophia to the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayi) where we’ll have a dinner so fancy that at 2 am my husband will order pizza from...
Bublé Card
The Carnival Chronicles
It’s been nine days since I got a whole can’s worth at once. Nothing says I’m back in the USA like the large Diet Coke I ordered at an airport kiosk that’s brimming with ice, half a gallon at least, and rocking a thick lemon slice. I never figured out if in the...